Analysis of the Nursing Workforce Crisis: A Call to Action

Abstract

In our integrative review of reports on the health care workforce shortage, we examined 15 reports that focused primarily on nursing and were conducted by various stakeholders. We studied these reports objectively, identifying problems and solutions as described by the authors, which we then categorized by theme. We found problems at both the national and institutional levels and noted that the reports contained similar problem and solution "themes." Yet we also found gaps between these-some problems had no solutions and some solutions didn't address any of the suggested problems. Gaps occurred among problems and solutions listed in the following theme categories: demand, health care economics, workforce planning, research and data support, and technology. Despite the urgent need, we still lack a national strategy designed to avert the nursing shortage. This review may provide a foundation for such a plan.We present the results of our analysis and our recommendations to the federal government and national organizations, to institutions, and to nurses. These recommendations don't provide a comprehensive strategy for averting the nursing shortage, but they do offer a basis upon which one may be created.

The Future of Nursing: Understanding Who Nurses Are

“…The authors analyzed 15 reports on shortages in the nursing and health care workforces to look for similarities in the conclusions and to find solutions to the nursing shortage. They found very little agreement among the reports and their findings 2 . However, the reports identified gaps in the understanding of workforce planning and the laws of supply and demand, primarily among policymakers and health care facility executives and also in formal nursing educators.…”

“…The need for information regarding the nursing workforce has appeared in the literature several times over the years. In 2003, for example, Bleich et al 2 called for a national strategy to avert the nursing workforce shortage. The authors analyzed 15 reports on shortages in the nursing and health care workforces to look for similarities in the conclusions and to find solutions to the nursing shortage.…”

“…Information from the IOM report and well‐known researchers, such as Bleich et al, 2 leads to the conclusion that licensing by individual state boards of nursing without a national repository of nursing workforce demographics makes it difficult to understand who comprises the national nursing workforce. Each state has a database with information, such as demographics, about nurses in the state.…”

Nurses Working Outside of Nursing

“…Changes in the work environment that will allow aging nurses to continue to practice are needed (Bleich et al, 2003;Buerhaus et al, 2000;Kovner et al, 2007;McIntosh, Rambur, Palumbo, & Mongeon, 2003;Rosenfeld, 2007;Watson, Manthorpe, & Andrews, 2003). The U.S. Department of Labor Bureau of Health Statistics (2006) data show that nurses leave their chosen profession at younger ages than workers in other professions.…”

Active State-Level Engagement with the Nursing Shortage: A Study of Five Midwestern States

“…wages over the 1990s (Sochalski, 2002), as well as increased demands for hospital nursing and higher turnover rates in hospitals, nursing homes, and home health care (U.S. General Accounting Office, 2001). Within the profession of nursing, many groups have advocated for strategies to address the shortage (Bleich et al, 2003). In 2001, the American Nurses Association (ANA) drew together representatives from major national nursing associations to develop a comprehensive strategic plan know as "Nursing's Agenda for the Future" (American Nurses Association [ANA], 2002).…”